


the clouds away

by minijhi



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Magical Elements
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-16
Updated: 2017-08-16
Packaged: 2018-12-15 19:36:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,584
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11812788
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/minijhi/pseuds/minijhi
Summary: Jongdae's been wearing the same yellow shirt and blue jeans combination all week.It must be sorcery.





	the clouds away

**Author's Note:**

> i wanted to write cute, clueless, office-worker jongdae who has no idea how he’s been wearing so much yellow until he goes home and opens his wardrobe. i don’t know how everything else got here. it’s magic.

An ice-cream jingle is playing on the stoplight as Jongdae waits for his turn to cross the road, and Jongdae frowns up at it, readjusting the tray of drinks in his hands. He’s running almost an hour late for work, mostly because he'd spent an extra thirty minutes buying his coworkers’ forgiveness in the form of bubble tea.  It had seemed like a foolproof plan when he’d launched out of the house mere minutes after waking up that morning, but he isn’t so sure about it now.

Still, it’s worth a shot.

The little divination and tea shop that Jongdae works at is located amongst a tiny cluster of specialty stores on a slanted hill, and by the time Jongdae makes it there the rain has lessened to no more than a tiny drizzle. Jongdae glances briefly into the stained glass windows of the ceramic store downstairs, waving at the cat curled up on the windowsill, before taking the steps up to his workplace two at a time.

“Welcome to—“ Sehun begins when the brass chimes above the door announce Jongdae’s arrival, promptly breaking off when he sees who it is. He slumps back onto the misshapen armchair. “Oh, it’s you.”

“Your favourite person in the whole world.” Jongdae informs him, and when Sehun remains unconvinced, Jongdae pulls the tray of drinks out from behind his back.

“My favourite person in the whole world.” Sehun parrots shamelessly, moving the fluffy fur pillow on his lap that turns out to be a dog. Vivi glowers up at his owner and moves to sleep in the basket of lavender they’ve been trying to dry out for weeks.

“Sorry I’m late, I wanted to get you guys something nice for this rainy, miserable day.” Jongdae calls towards the back of the shop. He hands Sehun the drinks, pulling the hood off his rain jacket.

“No need for that, the sun has risen.” Sehun says, taking a long sip of his bubble tea. He gives Jongdae an unimpressed look. “You do realize that you’re wearing yellow again?”

Jongdae looks down at himself, hanging his wet jacket onto the coat rack. He’s indeed wearing the same yellow-and-denim combination that Sehun had just commented on the day before, though he’s pretty sure the old outfit is still in the laundry. Weird. He didn’t realize he owned that many yellow things.

“Want me to do a reading?” Junmyeon asks, sticking his head out from behind the black floral tapestry. Several runes tumble out of his lap and onto the floor. “I can find out why you’ve been wearing yellow so much recently.”

Jongdae rolls his eyes. “Yes, because wearing yellow is clearly indicative of some deep rooted spiritual problem in my life.”

“I don’t know about deeply-rooted, but something’s definitely up. I’ve never seen someone wear yellow so many days in a row before. Have you been feeling unwell? Dizziness? Headaches? Anything?” Junmyeon says. He pushes the tapestry back so he can give Jongdae a lengthy once-over.

“Maybe someone cast a spell on him.” Sehun suggests.

“Guys, it’s just clothes.” Jongdae says, looking for the box of glass figurines that he'd left in the middle of polishing yesterday. “Leave me alone.”

Junmyeon frowns at him, but before he can reach for the candles and oils, the chimes above the door go off again. A woman with a wide brim hat over her eyes glides into the store, smelling strongly of ammonia. Sehun hurries out of the armchair and behind the counter.

“Take your work to the back.” Junmyeon says, waving Jongdae away. “I can’t bear to look at you on such an overcast day.”

 

-

 

Baekhyun’s shoes are at the front door when Jongdae gets home, and Jongdae smiles as he toes his own shoes off beside Baekhyun’s, letting himself into the house.

“You’re home!” Baekhyun says, perking up from the couch. He’s brought Mongryong over, and the dog is napping casually in between Baekhyun’s ankles. Jongdae blows them both a kiss, bypassing the couch and going straight upstairs for a shower. He’s always careful about cleansing himself before touching Baekhyun, no matter how hard Baekhyun can be to resist sometimes.

Junmyeon had held him back after work to hand him a small bag, and Jongdae sets the items from the bag onto the marble sink countertop. It’s a variety of bath salts, rose water, crystals and incense. Considering Jongdae had spent the entire day polishing figurines in the back room, a shower should suffice, but Jongdae admits that Sehun and Junmyeon’s comments have left him wary. He sighs and draws a bath, reaching for his phone so he can let Baekhyun know it’ll take awhile.

By the time he steps out of the water half-an-hour later, the mirrors are completely fogged up, and Jongdae feels relaxed and warm. Sleepily, he pulls on the sweater Baekhyun had bought him for their two-month anniversary and heads down the stairs.

“You smell like roses.” Baekhyun says when Jongdae melts against him, pressing kisses into the exposed column of Baekhyun’s neck. Jongdae likes that Baekhyun doesn’t mess around with energies like he does, it makes Baekhyun’s aura soft and happy and unmistakably  _Baekhyun_ , untainted by external influences.

Baekhyun wiggles a little to steal a proper kiss, carding his hand through Jongdae’s hair. “Long day at work?”

“Mm.” Jongdae says, then corrects himself, “Not really. Something weird has been happening recently, we’re not sure what yet.”

Baekhyun’s hand pauses, tangled in his hair. “What is it? Are you okay?”

“Everything’s fine.” Jongdae says. He pushes back to inspect Baekhyun’s worried face, pressing a thumb beneath the pink flush of Baekhyun’s cheeks. “At least I think so. You’ve been feeling okay recently, right?”

“Yeah, why?” Baekhyun says.

“You’ve been wearing the necklace?”

“Yes. I’m fine, Jongdae. Are you?”

Jongdae opens his mouth to reply, and closes it again, his heart picking up in his chest as he notices the sleeves of his sweater. They're yellow. A faded yellow, almost white from a bleaching accident, but yellow nonetheless. The bath hadn’t worked.

Jongdae rips away from Baekhyun, shaking. Mongryong crawls onto his lap, curious, and Jongdae leaps to his feet, putting as much distance as he can between himself and his boyfriend’s pet.

“Hey, hey. What’s wrong?” Baekhyun asks.

“Don’t come near me!” Jongdae says quickly. “I— I’m wearing yellow.”

“Um.” Baekhyun says. “That’s… true? You look very nice.”

Jongdae shakes his head, fumbling for his phone. Junmyeon. He needs to call Junmyeon. “Listen," he tells Baekhyun, "this is the thing that’s been happening all week. I keep showing up to work wearing yellow shirts and blue jeans. I want to think it’s a coincidence, but I don’t even remember buying any of them, and to wear them for five consecutive days? Sehun and Junmyeon think I might have been cursed.”

Baekhyun makes a choking noise, and Jongdae fights the urge to wrap Baekhyun in his arms. “It’s okay, I’ll be okay, Baekhyun, I promise. It’s just a silly jinx, I’ll call Junmyeon and he’ll come over to fix everything.”

He ducks his head down to his phone to look for Junmyeon’s number, but before he can find it, he’s being hauled to his feet. Jongdae flails. “You can’t touch me, Baek, what if I curse you—”

“You’re so dumb.” Baekhyun says, and Jongdae realizes that the strange choking noise Baekhyun’s been making is laughter. Baekhyun squeezes Jongdae’s fingers tightly. “Let’s go upstairs. I have something to show you.”

Jongdae wobbles all the way up, whimpering for Baekhyun to let go and to take a bath before the spell spreads to him too. Baekhyun rolls his eyes, and pushes Jongdae into the bedroom, finally letting go of Jongdae’s hand.

“I did laundry for you right before you got home.” Baekhyun says, pulling open the wardrobe door. “You’re welcome. Come here, I want you to take a look at this.” 

Jongdae steps towards him nervously, keeping his arms wrapped around himself so Baekhyun won’t grab him again.

“Don’t look at me, look here.” Baekhyun says, and Jongdae finally does.

His mouth falls open. Nearly his half his wardrobe consists of yellow shirts, sweaters and blue jeans, and what remains of his old collection is pushed aside to the far end of the rack. He’s always half-asleep and late for work when he wakes up in the morning, and based on the arrangement of his closet, it’s frankly amazing that Jongdae has only been wearing yellow for a week.

“I don’t remember buying any of these.” Jongdae says, bewildered. “How did this happen?”

 “I bought them.” Baekhyun says. “Surprise! I’ve been adding something new to your wardrobe almost every other day?”

Jongdae scans through the rack in confusion. Looking at the clothes now, he does have some faint recollection of seeing Baekhyun bringing most of these over, either wearing them or presenting them as a gift.

From behind him, Jongdae feels Baekhyun's hands tugging at the hem of his shirt, fingers inching around the waistband of his pants.  Jongdae swats him away.

"What are you trying to do?  I'm having a serious conversation here."  Jongdae snaps.

Baekhyun squirms.  "Is it okay if we have this conversation with your shirt tucked in?  It would look _so_ good, Jongdae, please?"

Jongdae forcibly peels Baekhyun's fingers off him.

“What does that have to do with anything? Focus, Baekhyun!  What is this?” Jongdae asks, pointing at the yellow collection of clothes again. “You never wear any of these more than once. You just keep buying them and leaving them around.”

Baekhyun wriggles nervously. “I... was hoping you'd wear them."

Jongdae’s eyes narrow. “Is this some kind of weird kink?”

“No!” Baekhyun protests. “Not really?”

“I swear, Baekhyun, if this is going to be like that time you said you liked cream puffs and—”

“No!” Baekhyun shrieks. “You just look really nice. In yellow. And denim. Especially when you tuck your shirt in. I've always liked people wearing yellow t-shirts with blue jeans.”

Jongdae pauses, trying to wrap his head around the situation. “So you’ve been secretly replacing all my clothes with this… bumblebee coordination because I look nice in it?”

“Not bumblebees.” Baekhyun sulks. “It’s yellow and blue.”

Jongdae shoves him, and sits heavily onto the bed. “Where are the rest of my clothes? I'm sure I had a lot more shirts than this.”

“They’re at my place. I’ve been wearing them.” Baekhyun says.

“Of course you have.”

There’s a talisman sewn into the lining of Jongdae’s blanket, and he reaches over to curl his fingers around it. Slowly, he says, “That means I’m not cursed? It’s been you all this time?”

Baekhyun nods.

“Okay.” Jongdae says. He leans back, crossing his legs one over the other and flicks in the corner of his shirt. Baekhyun's watching him with wide eyes. “Now come here and tell me exactly how much you liked seeing me wear all that yellow."

 

-

 

“This is the worst day of my life.” Baekhyun says, trailing behind Jongdae as they enter the clothing store. “I bought you so many lovely shirts, and you want to go  _shopping_? Why don’t you just carve my heart out and offer it to the devil while you’re at it?”

“Don’t be overdramatic.” Jongdae says. “I’d just like to wear a couple of things that aren’t yellow, at some point. If you’d left me with a few more shirts, we wouldn’t be here right now.”

Baekhyun grumbles under his breath but clings to Jongdae’s arm and falls silent. Jongdae gives him a sympathetic pat on the back.

Jongdae doesn’t go shopping a lot, and he’s sure it shows from how little attention he pays to what he’s wearing. He walks past t-shirts and jerseys and sweaters and cardigans, letting his fingers trail absently across the fabric of each piece. After about twenty minutes and at the end of his third row of clothing, he stops, pulling a black-and-white plaid shirt off the rack. 

“What do you think?” Jongdae asks, but Baekhyun has stopped looming over Jongdae’s shoulder like a vengeful spirit and is crouched down beside some sasquatch-inspired footwear.  Jongdae shrugs and takes the shirt, slipping into the changing room to try it on. He’s grinning at his reflection several moments later when he hears Baekhyun’s voice outside.

Jongdae pulls open the door.

“How does this look?” he asks, smoothing a hand over his torso. “Bearable?”

“You could just wear yel—” Baekhyun breaks off and swallows, looking him up and down.

Jongdae hides his smile behind a hand, and Baekhyun is too dazed to notice. Jongdae pretends to consider himself in the mirror again. “You don’t seem to like it, should I put it back?”

“No!” Baekhyun says, tackling Jongdae against the door of the changing room. “I love it. We’re buying it in all the colours.”

This is not going the way Jongdae was expecting it to. “We don’t need five plaid shirts—”

“Five plaid shirts.” Baekhyun repeats luxuriously, sprawling boneless against Jongdae with a dreamy smile. “And yellow on the weekends. I’m the luckiest person in the world.”

 

-

 

After compromising on  _three shirts, Baekhyun, please_ , they wander past the rest of the stores enjoying the fresh, cool air. They stop at Lady Luck briefly for Baekhyun to say hi to Sehun and Junmyeon, and eventually make their way up to the playground at the very top of the hill.

“I can’t believe you thought wearing yellow was the sign of a curse. You’re not very good at your job, are you?” Baekhyun says, lying on the deck of the fort with his ankles dangling in the tunnel slide. Jongdae climbs up to sit beside him, spinning absently at the captain’s wheel.

“In my defense, I thought nothing of it until my  _boss_  said it might be.” Jongdae says. He hooks their shopping bag over one of the protruding bars, and moves to lie beside Baekhyun.

“I have a beautiful boyfriend,” Baekhyun sighs, “even if he can be a little dumb.”

“You’re dumb.” Jongdae says. “Why couldn’t you just tell me that you wanted me to wear yellow? You go to such strange measures to get me to do things for you sometimes, Baekhyun. You don't need weird tricks and spells."

Baekhyun scrunches up his face. “What if I do? Maybe once upon a time, I tried a few love potions so I could get this dumb boy to fall in love with me.”

Jongdae kicks Baekhyun lightly with his foot. "Don't say stupid things like that." he murmurs.

Baekhyun tilts his head towards Jongdae, eyes soft.

“Anyway, the joke’s on you.” Jongdae says. “I’m warded against spells like that every single day. I’ve been completely immune to love potions since I was five.”

“Does that mean this was all a lie?” Baekhyun mock-gasps, sitting up. He makes to escape down the slide at a painstakingly slow pace, and gets stuck at the very bottom.

Jongdae climbs down the ladder and pulls him out. “It means I really love you, Byun Baekhyun.”

Baekhyun swats him, and then yanks Jongdae forward to kiss him. Jongdae laughs against his mouth, twirling his fingers into Baekhyun's shirt— a shirt that up until very recently, lived in Jongdae's closet.  Pleased, Jongdae kisses Baekhyun again, and reaches above their heads to grab the shopping bag.

“Let’s go home.” Jongdae says, slinging his arm over Baekhyun’s shoulder. “I've got a lot of leftover rose water and a big, empty bathtub. I think I know a magic trick that you'll definitely enjoy."

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> 1\. jongdae has been wearing a lot of yellow and plaid recently. i can't imagine why. 
> 
> 2\. when will i write a drabble without it carrying me away into the night
> 
> 3\. this was strange, thank you for reading!


End file.
